Broadband growth to aid rural patients

WASHINGTON — In Martin County, Ky., a remote corner of Appalachia, it can take hours to reach a doctor's office, so something as simple as a cholesterol check can cost a miner a day's work.

"It's a long way from an office building to the mine," Dr. Raymond Wells said.

So amid the secluded mountains and hollers where President Lyndon Johnson announced his war on poverty, Wells, who has practiced medicine in the coal fields for 40 years, has brought medical care to the mine, serving 1,115 people where they work with a nurse practitioner on-site and the physician holding high-speed Internet videoconferences with patients.

Now, with $7.2 billion of the $787 billion federal economic stimulus set aside to expand the reach of broadband service to rural areas, Kentucky stands as a model of how the Internet can alter the lives of workers and owners of small businesses alike, but also a lesson in the challenges of connecting far-flung corners of America.

Fifty-five percent of all Americans already have broadband access at home, up from 47 percent in 2007, according to a July 2008 Pew Internet & American Life Project report. The study also found that 38 percent of rural Americans have broadband at home, an increase of 23 percent from the previous year.

Congressional leaders and the White House now hope that a wired-up "e-infrastructure" reaching all corners of the country will create new jobs and stimulate economic growth.

In 2004, Kentucky set out to build a statewide broadband network. In conjunction with ConnectKentucky, a nonprofit organization that leverages partnerships between state government and broadband providers, the state has significantly increased broadband availability, spending about $7.5 million on the project.

ConnectKentucky claims that 95 percent of all Kentuckians - 546,000 new households - now have high-speed Internet access, up from 60 percent. The organization points to a detailed map of broadband availability showing cable, DSL, wireless and satellite services down to the census-block level as evidence.

The map is compiled from 88 service providers, according to Brian Mefford, former head of ConnectKentucky and now chairman and CEO of ConnectedNation, a national offshoot based in Washington, D.C. But the organization keeps details about providers as a proprietary and closely held secret.

This has set off alarms for some industry observers, who question whether entities such as ConnectedNation are acting as shills for preferred partners and carriers. Art Brodsky, communications director for Public Knowledge, a Washington, D.C.-based public interest group focused on the emerging digital culture, questions the veracity of ConnectKentucky's assertion of nearly 100 percent broadband penetration.

Brodsky's solution is to have the states, not a third party such as ConnectedNation, manage a broadband rollout.